Agri Eastern Cape Congress

Marco Coetzee, Sanmarie Vermaak and Jaco Oelofse attended the Agri Eastern Cape Congress at Mentors Plaza in Jeffreys Bay.

The theme for the Congress was ‘Adapt’. Some of the speakers included Dr Imtiaz Sooliman from Gift of the Givers, PW Moolman from PWM, Siphokazi Ndudane from DRDAR and Nicol Jansen from Agri SA.

One of the main discussion points at the congress concerned connectivity on farms during loadshedding. Some of our farming regions have very little connectivity (or none at all) when there is loadshedding in their area, which is a real challenge.

Two service providers, MTN and Vodacom also attended the conference and tried to address some of our farmers concerns. They presented on all the upgrades they have made to mitigate these challenges, including batteries at relevant towers. However, theft of these batteries has slowed the progress. Both of these service providers have pledged to do everything in their power to resolve the connectivity challenges.

Agri EC also encouraged farmers to report all cases of stock theft. Recent results have shown that stock theft is reducing, however, Agri EC believes this is not the case. Agri EC are rolling out cameras across our producing areas, which are monitored 24/7 at the Agri EC offices in Port Elizabeth. This has improved the situation over the previous 12 months.

The Toyota Young Farmer of the Year Eastern Cape Winner was announced at a cocktail evening. We would like to congratulate Dian Landman for winning this outstanding award.

We would also like to congratulate Peter Cloete and Eben du Plessis for their re-election for President and Deputy President for Agri EC.

At the General Council meeting, Sanmarie Vermaak had the opportunity to address the Council with a presentation on the Mohair Empowerment Trust. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jaco Oelofse for the time that he represented the Mohair Industry at Agri EC. With the new structure in place, this role will be filled by Sanmarie Vermaak.